


When balance slays the demon

by Corvus_florensis



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Kiss, Light Angst, Reylo - Freeform, i guess, sure let's call it that, that's all i got chief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:07:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21578059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corvus_florensis/pseuds/Corvus_florensis
Summary: Rey is unsure exactly what to do with the bond linking her and Ben Solo, but she'll try her best to make him see there's still good in him.orA different version of the "touch" scene between Rey and Ben in The Last Jedi, uninterrupted by Luke or any nosey fish nuns
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32





	When balance slays the demon

**Author's Note:**

> Since I'm insanely hyped for The Rise of Skywalker, I sat down and put this together in this afternoon. It was just a nice idea I had in the bus and wanted to try to make happen.
> 
> Title comes from "Balance Slays The Demon" by the Old Gods of Asgard aka Poets of the Fall (if you're an Alan Wake fan, you're already a hero in my book)

Ahch-To was a very quiet place.

If you focused your attention, you could hear a myriad of sounds, too quiet to be heard at the same time, but just loud enough to scream on their own. There were the waves that hit the rocky shore of the island, the soft murmur of the fish nuns who tended the Jedi Temple as they grew weary of the day’s work, the cute noises the porgs made as they prepared themselves to sleep.

And between it all, a different sound. Some would call it a symphony. A song holding the universe in place, matching the tone of the waves, the Caretakers and even the porgs together in something just cohesive enough to exist.

A Force.

A Force that linked the tiniest of particles together just as much as it linked two minds through space and time.

Ahch-To was indeed a very quiet place. But if you focused enough attention, you could almost hear the tension coming from one of the stone huts that peppered the island, and the two people it now held.

…

Rey never felt so unsure of herself in her life. There were times, of course, when she’d became convinced she was going to die, particularly in the last couple of days, as she survived being imprisoned in a deadly space station designed to destroy entire planetary systems, to her travels that led her to what was probably the most secluded place in the whole galaxy. But even before that, there were times in Jakku when she asked herself if there was really a reason for all of her efforts. If there was really a reason for her to keep on counting the days at the inside wall of the AT-AT she called home. She always found solace in the hope that yes, it would all be worth it in the end, when her long lost parents would come back for her, and she wouldn’t feel so alone anymore.

But she never felt so unsure as now, when she looked at the scarred face of the boy saying that she wasn’t alone.  _ Not anymore _ .

She should be screaming at him, after what he did. She watched as this… this monster murdered Han Solo right in front of her! His own son, cut through his father with that hideous abomination of a lightsaber that seemed as unstable as Kylo Ren himself. She should hate him, yes, but somehow… she doesn’t find it in heart to do so.

She remembers the interrogation room, where Kylo tried to extract from her the secrets to find Luke Skywalker. She remembers her surprise when the creature in the mask reveals to be the face a boy. A boy that was betrayed by those who should’ve protected him, who only turned to the Dark Side because he had nothing left to lose. The face of Ben Solo.

It’s the same face she sees now, through the Force, in the warm light of the fire that casts shadows along the stone walls. The same face she scarred in the forest of the Starkiller Base using his old master’s own lightsaber, the lightsaber which once belonged to none other than Darth Vader…

“It wasn’t always his.”

Ben looks at Rey, almost fearing that the spell that binds them together will be broken if she speaks too much.

“It wasn’t always Darth Vader’s. Once, it belonged to someone else. Can’t you feel it?” She extended the weapon to Ben, who looked at it with a mixture of fear and desire, a legacy he was drawn to, but feared nonetheless.

“It was my grandfather’s weapon. Passed down to my uncle, who should’ve passed it down to me.”

“But Vader wasn’t always your grandfather, was he?”

Rey’s words seemed to reach something in Ben. He winced, giving Rey the opening she was looking for.

“It belonged to Anakin Skywalker, didn’t it? The Jedi Knight? Right, Ben?”

He winced again as she used a name that wasn’t his anymore, a name given to him in homage to an old fool, the fool who betrayed his grandfather, just as Han Solo betrayed him.

“Ben?”

“That’s not my name!” The shadows around the hut appeared to grow darker for a moment. Rey felt the shift in their connection, the Force growing darker too, following Ben’s emotions. “Anakin Skywalker was weak. He was betrayed by the Jedi Order, by his so-called friends, so he became more powerful than any of them would ever dream. He became Darth Vader.”

There he was. The scared boy, afraid of his own past.

“You’re wrong, Ben.”

“And how would you know?” he practically spitted the sentence.

“Reach out… with your feelings.” she extended the lightsaber in his direction again. “Don’t let the hate cloud your vision. Let the Force guide you. Please.” there was something akin to desperation in her voice.  _ She needed him to see it _ .

Ben was dumbfounded. Why was she doing this? She  _ hated  _ him. She should be using that lightsaber to slay him, then and there, not caring if the blade would actually cut him. But instead… instead, there she was, extending his legacy towards him, asking for him to feel.

So he felt.

At first, it was nothing more than a glimpse, a warm feeling in his stomach, rising slowly to his throat, but just as he was about to close himself to it, it began to take shape in his mind. It was the face of a woman. As it took form, he could discern her features well enough. She was beautiful. He could see she was kind, too. The Force was telling him, and her face offered no contradiction. But she was sad, too. Something deep inside her made the face seem all the more sad because of it. He could see a shadow looming, just at the edge of his vision. He turned his head and saw  _ it _ . Big, cold and evil, darkness made flesh: his grandfather.

But something was… off. He was almost immaterial, almost like a fog. He could hear a raggedy breath, but behind it, behind the fog and the darkness… he saw a child.

A child, saying goodbye to his mother.

A child, who betrayed his master.

A child, tricked into being a murderer.

A child, who saw an angel.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and a voice, lifting him from his drift.

“Ben?”

“He did it for her.” His voice was a deep, low hum. “All of it. Was for her. For… for…”

“Love.”

He looked up. He was still in the hut. Somewhere along the vision, he fell to his knees. He could feel the dirt in his hands, even though he knew he was in his perfectly clean quarters aboard the Supreme Leader’s dreadnought. He could feel the dirt getting under his nails as he closed his fist against it. He could also feel the searing pain coming from the scar on his face, the scar that Rey made on him,  _ the scar that split him to the bone _ ...

But he could also feel a hand on his shoulder.

“How is this happening?” he was looking at Rey,  _ seeing her _ , standing right beside him, as though she was  _ right there _ . “We… we should not be alive after a connection of this magnitude.”

Rey couldn’t explain it, either. Ever since it started, this strange  _ thing _ between them has been more than a simple mystery. It simply shouldn’t be possible.

And yet, here they were.

“I don’t know, Ben. I don’t know why we’re alive after… after everything that happened” she could see his eyes starting to tear up “I just know we’re not dead.”

Slowly, she lowered herself to her knees, never taking the hand from his shoulder. Instantly, other things became clear to him: the feeling of her hand, her smell, the way her eyes seemed to reflect the light of the fire, it all seemed… clearer.

She reached his face with the other hand. Although he was still afraid of what that connection meant, as soon as her hand reached his face, he fell into her touch. It was the first time they really touched each other, Rey realized, without any violence. Ben would have to disagree with her, as the simple gesture of affection hit him like a punch. They settled in that position, touching their foreheads together, each feeling the other’s sweat, slowly synching their breaths until they felt it was safe to look each other in the eye.

She lightly stroked his scar, feeling the skin under her fingers, feeling the boy that tried so hard never to come out.

“How?” his voice came as an echo: so far away, and yet impossibly familiar.

“What?” Rey almost whispers to him.

“How can you ever… ever forgive what I did?”

Rey took a long look at his eyes before answering.

“I’m not sure I can ever forgive you.”

Ben closed his eyes. He was already expecting it, of course. The monster that his father was afraid of, that his mother wanted to tame, that Luke tried to kill in the crib… that monster was beyond love. Even to Rey, the one person in the galaxy who seemed to understand him.

He might have closed his eyes, but the Force let Rey see the whirlwind going on his mind, the way the thoughts chained themselves one to the other until he was back in the prison he built for himself, all alone.

Rey swore she would help him break those chains.

She reached for him, through the Force, and held as close as she could, until the distance between them was no more than the distance between the tiniest particles.

“But I see the good in you, Ben Solo. It’s always been there. And it always will be.”

Ben opened his eyes. Rey touched their lips.

If previous contacts with the scavenger girl from Jakku left Ben fearful or angry, this one left him completely speechless. At that point, Kylo Ren let go of everything he feared to lose, and just gave himself a moment to  _ feel _ .

It was both soft and heavy, the texture of their lips colliding through the Force,  _ as the Force _ , across parsecs away, in that single, unique sentiment that was rising in their stomachs and flowing to their throats...

None of them could explain what exactly was happening at that moment. It was as if that ever present tension that held the universe together had suddenly relaxed and it now enveloped them, bound them to each other in an embrace so powerful it could’ve only been called destiny.

Light and dark collided in that moment, a convergence in the Force so powerful, that it was felt throughout the island. The Caretakers of the Jedi Temple could only stare helplessly as some of them started to float a few feet above the ground, lapping their tiny arms desperately trying to reach solid land. Across the island, random rocks started to levitate on their own, as if carried by invisible waves. A storm started to gather right above them, menacing streaks of lightning threatening the Jedi Temple and the Dark Side locus that was hidden beneath, both growing more powerful during that impossibly long moment in time.

It was a really simple kiss, since neither Rey nor Ben have had any sort of contact resembling it, but their feelings betrayed the real meaning of it: that they weren’t alone in this cold, dark, warm and bright galaxy.  _ Not anymore _ .

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading it! I sincerely hope you enjoyed it.  
> As always, I appreciate any and all (polite) corrections, since English really isn't my first language and it's way harder to write in it than to read, just so you know.


End file.
